Kaimur Plateau Wildlife Kol Tribal NTFP Ecology

Kaimur district occupies the Kaimur plateau — a forested sandstone ridge rising 300-400 metres above the Ganga plain — where the Kol, Bharwa, and Oraon tribal communities have traditionally gathered NTFP including mahua flowers, kendu leaf, tendu, and wild honey from the plateau's mixed dry deciduous forest. The Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary (500 sq km) protects wolf, leopard, chinkara, and one of UP-Bihar border's last viable wolf packs in the Kaimur plateau's ravine terrain. Kaimur's rock shelters at Mundeshwari and Bhagwanpur contain prehistoric cave paintings and the Mundeshwari temple (108 CE) — one of India's oldest standing Hindu temples — making the plateau significant for both ecological and archaeological heritage.